How to enter the metaverse

          从1992年科幻小说《雪崩》首次提出元宇宙概念，到2021年脸书母公司更名为“元”，宣布全面进军元宇宙，“元宇宙”逐步从概念变为现实，并渗透到包括文化和旅游等在内的各个领域：工业和信息化部、文化和旅游部等五部门印发《虚拟现实与行业应用融合发展行动计划（2022—2026年）》；张家界景区成立元宇宙研究中心，推出元宇宙平台“张家界星球”；远洲旅业入驻“分形者元宇宙”，购入元宇宙虚拟建筑……可以说，文旅元宇宙方兴未艾。然而，争论也从未停止，有人说文旅元宇宙是“风口”，有人说文旅元宇宙只是“噱头”。展望未来，文旅元宇宙将是怎样一幅图景，元宇宙如何牵手“诗和远方”？

Ever since the Metaverse entered the public eye, the hot debate around "what is the Metaverse" has never stopped.

What is Metaverse? Metaverse consists of two parts: "Meta" and "verse". "Meta" has the meaning of "higher; beyond", which can be understood as "beyond", and is also translated as "yuan"; the combination of "verse" and "universe" (universe) The suffixes are the same, and the combination of the two is "Metaverse", which can be simply understood as "a universe beyond reality".

"The concept of the metaverse was first proposed by the American science fiction writer Neil Stephenson in the novel "Avalanche" published in 1992. It refers to a digital world separated from the physical world, in which people live as virtual characters." " Zhang Jinyu, author of the book Metaverse Empowering Cultural Tourism and founder of Beijing Xushi Technology Co., Ltd., said.

Although the concept of the metaverse had appeared in 1992, it was limited by the technical conditions at that time and did not attract the attention of the society. Since then, network technology has developed rapidly, social platforms, online games, online office, etc. have developed rapidly, and technologies such as blockchain, virtual reality, augmented reality, human-computer interaction, and the Internet of Things have developed rapidly. The concept of metaverse has once again attracted people's attention.

"In March 2021, Roblox, which is known as the first stock in the Metaverse, was listed, and the Metaverse entered people's field of vision for the first time; in October of the same year, Facebook announced that it would change the parent company's name to Meta (元), holding high the banner of the Metaverse, and became a social media that swept the global public opinion. As a hotspot event, Metaverse quickly gained widespread attention from the government, enterprises, and ordinary people." Zhang Jinyu said.

At present, the construction of the Metaverse has just started, and most companies are fighting on their own without a unified leader, presenting a state of multi-point distribution. Different companies have various entry points, some use entertainment as the entry point, some use social platforms as the entry point, some use business office as the entry point, and some use cultural tourism as the entry point.

At present, the main explorers of the Metaverse include the metaverse platform "Horizon Worlds" under Meta, the game "Minecraft" under Microsoft, the online creation game platform "Roblox", the virtual world platform "Decentraland", and the domestic Baidu "Xi Rang". ", Netease "Yaotai" and so on.

"With the popularity of the metaverse concept, hot words such as industrial metaverse, agricultural metaverse, and government affairs metaverse have emerged one after another, and cultural tourism metaverse has also quickly become a hot word. On the one hand, cultural and tourism companies have tried the application of technologies related to the Metaverse.” Zhang Jinyu introduced that, in fact, before the concept of the Metaverse became popular in 2021, related technologies of the Metaverse had already been widely used in the field of cultural tourism, such as AR tour guides and AR outdoor games. , VR panoramic tour, VR flight/cruising, etc.

"The Metaverse is a new type of Internet application that integrates a variety of technologies and integrates virtual reality." Pan Haobo, chairman of Golden Palm Data Technology Company, believes that for the Metaverse, the establishment of an economic system is fundamental, otherwise the Metaverse There is no difference with the online game world. Among them, the blockchain is an important underlying technical support, and plays an important role in the identity authentication mechanism, economic system construction, and creator value protection.

Professor Shen Yang, director of the New Media Research Center of Tsinghua University, believes that the metaverse can be understood from three aspects: three-dimensionality—virtual three-dimensional space-time; three-dimensionality—natural life, virtual life, and machine life. Coexistence in the universe; three rights-"readable", "writable" and "possessible" rights are an important basis for constructing the metaverse.

An important reference indicator in the early stage of Metaverse development is the sales volume of VR equipment (one of the wearable equipment for human beings to enter the virtual world). According to a CCTV financial report, in the first half of 2022, the retail sales of China's VR market exceeded 800 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81%. Market research firm IDC predicts that from 2022 to 2026, the shipments of all-in-one VR devices in the Chinese consumer market are expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of more than 50%.

"Based on today's technology foundation, the Metaverse is likely to still be dominated by social networking, games, and content experience in the next 10 years." Zhang Yitian, founder of the VR industry, predicts that in the next stage, with technological progress, user increase, and user usage As time goes on, elements of the real world such as consumption, finance, and life services are continuously integrated into the metaverse. Smart cities, smart life, smart tourism, and smart transportation have made great progress. The virtual consumption system will gradually form a closed loop, and the new virtual economic ecology will also will be gradually formed.

In the process of metaverse construction, culture and tourism are important entry points. "Metaverse + cultural tourism" is full of broad imagination space, and various practical cases with metaverse labels are constantly emerging.

At present, the practice of "metaverse + cultural tourism" is also rich and colorful. There are two main types of technology applications: virtual reality and augmented reality. The application of virtual reality (VR) technology is to create a completely virtual time and space for tourists to experience through technology, such as wearing VR glasses to travel scenic spots and venues, etc. It produces the effect of combining virtual and real. For example, in some immersive cultural tourism experience projects, tourists can discover virtual treasures by scanning the real scene with their mobile phones. In addition, in terms of application fields, Metaverse technology is also widely used in tourism product development, service upgrading, promotion and other links.

Zhangjiajie Scenic Spot is the earliest scenic spot in China to establish a metaverse research center. In October 2022, the scenic spot metaverse platform "Zhangjiajie Planet" was launched. The reporter tried to experience the product. Follow the "Zhangjiajie Planet" WeChat official account, open the "Zhangjiajie Planet" interface, you can see the iconic peak forest in Zhangjiajie, there are two control points on the page, the operator can control it independently, realize "free flight", shuttle in the peak forest among.

In June 2022, Yuanzhou Tourism, a subsidiary of Yuanzhou Group, announced its entry into the "Fractal Universe", purchased a virtual building in the Metaverse, built a virtual hotel, and released a three-step strategy for entering the Metaverse: The first step is to complete the opening of the virtual hotel. The second step is to map the membership system and hotel services in the real world to the virtual hotel. The third step is the two-way interaction between the real world and the virtual world, creating a new era of virtual and real symbiosis.

In December 2022, the Korea Tourism Organization Experience Center will be officially opened on Baidu Xiran Yuanyu, becoming the first overseas tourism organization to launch in Xiyang Yuanyu, and is committed to building an experience space and service space for Chinese tourists.

The Palace Museum is also actively exploring the development of metaverse-related products. In early February 2023, it announced that it will plan to launch the first set of AR metaverse scene interactive electronic publication "I am repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City". Then you can step into the "Forbidden Wonderland" Metaverse of the Forbidden City Hall of Mental Cultivation built in a 1:1 ratio. Not only can you walk around the palace immersively, but you can also become a doctor of cultural relics. mission".

"Cultural tourism has a natural fit with the metaverse. The sense of presence, immersive experience, space-time expansion, and sensory extension advocated by the metaverse coincide with the effects pursued by the current digital cultural tourism. An important reason for entering the metaverse field early.” Kang Haijun, joint general manager of Hengxin Oriental, an enterprise that set foot in the metaverse earlier, said that immersive experience halls and digital twin scenic spots may be relatively hot development directions in the future. At the same time, digital performing arts and digital collections also have broad prospects for development.

In recent years, Ant Group has carried out rich practices in the field of digital cultural tourism metaverse. Yu Lin, General Manager of the Strategic Development Department of Ant Group, believes that the impact of Metaverse on tourism is reflected in many aspects, such as the acceleration of digitalization—the acceleration of digital transformation in marketing and operations; the upgrading of consumer services—in the digital age, consumers The requirements for service experience are getting higher and higher; income is diversified - in addition to ticket income, income channels are expanding to global consumption and multiple consumption, focusing on creating new consumption scenarios and focusing on post-travel memories.

"There are four main opportunities for the combination of metaverse and cultural tourism." Shen Yang believes that, one is high simulation, which goes beyond real situations; the other is low risk, which goes beyond people's conventional cognition; Human and material resources; the fourth is irrationality, which may not follow the common sense of the real world in some cases.

Although the Cultural Tourism Metaverse looks very lively, it is undeniable that it is still in its infancy. Whether it is the scene or the experience, it is far from meeting the expectations of the public, and it is even considered to be just a "gimmick".

"Generation Z" Xiao Yang said lightly after experiencing some metaverse products: "I tried some metaverse platforms, downloaded software, selected characters, and operated according to the system prompts, and it felt no different from online games; I also experienced some metaverse platforms. The metaverse project in the scenic spot is not as exciting as watching the promotional video of the scenic spot, it feels more like a concept speculation, not as good as the publicity." Xiao Yang also asked many "Generation Z" friends around him, and felt that everyone There is still not enough awareness and understanding of the Metaverse. Although Xiao Yang's point of view cannot represent all his peers, it can at least remind the industry that the user experience of Wenlv Metaverse needs to be improved.

WUWI/HBC's Chinese company focuses on the development of Metaverse virtual digital humans, and actively participates in the development of Metaverse products in the field of culture and tourism. Sun Bo, the founder of the company, said: "I think the metaverse must be a 'venture', and the cultural tourism metaverse is also promising and has a bright future. The reason why people have the view that 'the metaverse is just a gimmick' is because there are currently Some metaverse products of the company are still very rudimentary and cannot fully meet users’ experience expectations.”

"The metaverse products launched by cultural tourism venues, whether in terms of technical level or creative level, can't keep up with some online games, and users will naturally complain." Sun Bo said that from the perspective of overall development, metaverse has huge development potential, and will It has a subversive impact on all walks of life, and the same is true for the cultural travel industry.

Some industry players who have been involved in the metaverse field earlier also admit that at present, the construction of the cultural tourism metaverse is still in the initial stage of exploration and experimentation, and there is still a long way to go to realize the real cultural tourism metaverse.

The Metaverse is essentially a virtual world, and how to properly handle the relationship between "virtual and real" is an unavoidable problem for future development. The Cultural Tourism Metaverse also has to face this problem—traditional tourism pays attention to seeing is believing and personal experience, while the Metaverse is characterized by taking the virtual as the real and interacting with the virtual and the real. How to view the relationship between the two and how to handle the relationship between the two is very important.